‘A Horse with Character’ Bronze Sculpture

The excellently modelled sculpture is cast in a patinated bronze, and stands on a naturalistically carved stone plinth, and is signed ‘A LeDuc, Torigni’
France, Circa 1890

Literature

Arthur LeDuc was born in Torigni-sur Vire, in central Normandy; his training as a sculptor at the Le Nordez Ecole des Beaux Arts under Barye was interrupted by the Franco –Prussian war of 1870, in which he served in the Calvados division of the French Army with distinction. Larousse notes ‘he was a ‘man of horses’ above all else’, and the noted animalier Fremiet commented to LeDuc, ‘I wish I knew horses as you do!’. Winner of numerous medals in the French Salon, and Expositions Universelles, he was a founder member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts; elected to the Legion d’Honneur in 1906, and serving as Mayor of Asnieres-en-Bessin between 1893 and 1918. Many of his monumental exterior sculptures were lost in the Second World War, and he is represented in the museums of his birthplace, Torigni-sur-Vire, as well as Cherbourg, Abbeville, Rouen, Bayeux, Versailles and the Luxembourg Paris, and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Australia.